“The Legislature should be proud of the Board, not only for its nonpartisan nature, but for its accomplishments and performance over the first seven years existence,” Kennedy said in defending the campaign finance, elections, and ethics regulator against a growing list of critics concerned that the agency was alarmingly partisan and less than accountable.

SAVE MARY: An email obtained by Wisconsin Watchdog shows former GAB legal counsel Shane Falk worrying about what a prosecutor’s statement might mean for the campaign of Democratic candidate for governor, Mary Burke. Critics have long suggested the GAB was running a partisan investigation.

Court-sealed GAB emails reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and one obtained by Wisconsin Watchdog seem to expose the regulator as hyper-partisan, a rogue agency leading a politically-charged campaign finance probe into Gov. Scott Walker and dozens of conservative organizations.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board reported that GAB staff, including Kennedy, worked with John Doe special prosecutor Francis Schmitz and the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office (run by a partisan Democrat) to “subpoena and intimidate the major conservative players in Wisconsin politics.”

The editorial points to an email, dated Nov. 27, 2013, to Schmitz from former GAB staff counsel Shane Falk.

Falk encouraged the special prosecutor to stay strong in the politically charged probe into Walker and his conservative allies.

“Remember, in brief, this was a bastardization of politics and our state is being run by corporations and billionaires,” Falk wrote. “That isn’t democracy to say the least, but due to how they do this dark money, the populace never gets to know.”

“The cynic in me says the sheeple would still follow the propaganda even if they knew,” Falk wrote, “but at least it would all be out there so that the influences on our politicians is clearly known.”

The documents are filed at the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which last month in a 4-2 ruling ordered the unconstitutional investigation shut down and the targets’ illegally seized property – including millions of pages of documents – to be returned to their owners.

Schmitz is hoping the Supreme Court will reconsider. He has urged the court to stay the order demanding the “evidence” returned and copies destroyed so that Schmitz and his fellow prosecutors and investigators might defend themselves against civil rights lawsuits.

“You just lied to the press,” Falk scolded Schmitz in the email, obtained by Wisconsin Watchdog. “See attached ‘target’ sheets from our search warrant and subpoena meeting. I see ‘SW’ right up near the top on page 1. Is there someone else that has those initials? Page 3 even has all the stuff we wanted from SW.’

“If you didn’t want this to have an effect on the election, better check Burke’s new ad. Now you will be calling her a liar,” Falk wrote. “This is a no win. I encourage you to roll with it, or tone down the press release a bit more to focus on how many times you said ‘alleged’ or say that people are drawing conclusions that have not yet been proven in a court of law or something.”

And then Falk wrote something arguably more curious.

“We said from day one on November 8, 2012, that the election had already started,” the legal counsel tells Schmitz.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office in August 2012 sought and received permission to roll over its first phase of the John Doe targeting Walker’s former aides and associates into the multi-county political campaign finance probe.

Schmitz, a former federal attorney, was not tapped to serve as special prosecutor until a year later. He was the GAB’s special investigator on the Doe probe before being elevated to the prosecutor post.

Falk sent Schmitz a copy of the Burke campaign ad, which features headlines and stories from the mainstream media claiming the governor led a “criminal scheme that broke election laws.” After the ad ran, Schmitz issued the statement, saying Walker was never a target, and that he was never served with a subpoena.

The Walker campaign called Burke’s campaign ad “slanderous.”

Falk made sure to copy all of the major players on the email – Kennedy, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, his assistant DAs, David Robles and Bruce Landgraf, the GAB’s Jonathan Becker, and GAB communications director Reid Magney.

It doesn’t appear Falk was ever disciplined for his partisan communications.

Falk resigned a year ago, just as the GAB narrowly voted to shut down its campaign finance investigation. Agency officials have called it a “parallel” investigation, but it is clear from Falk’s emails and other court documents that the GAB was directly working with the prosecutors in the criminal probe.

TRUST US: GAB director Kevin Kennedy has said Wisconsin should be proud of its “nonpartisan” campaign finance, elections, and ethics regulator.

Kennedy praised the attorney, writing to the board and staff that Falk “exemplifies all that is great about the people who work at the Government Accountability Board.”

“He is a dedicated public servant who puts the public and the agency first in his professional life,” Kennedy wrote.

In a statement to Wisconsin Watchdog, Kennedy blamed “some parties to the John Doe case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court” who he asserts have chosen to violate the secrecy order by “selectively releasing emails to mislead the public.”

“We will not violate the court’s order, or state law regarding the confidentiality of G.A.B. investigations, to respond,” the GAB director said.

As for Falk, well, staff members of the agency are “human, and feel passionately about ensuring that all parties comply with campaign finance laws.”

“My role and the Board Members’ role is to ensure that the enforcement decisions are non-partisan,” Kennedy said.

The Wall Street Journal piece points out that GAB staff counsel Nathan Judnic “marched against Mr. Walker’s Act 10 reforms (to public union collective bargaining) and wrote on Twitter that the state should ‘Stand in solidarity. Kill the bill. Support public employees and their right to bargain.’”

Critics of the probe contend it was carried out to retaliate against Walker and his supporters for their limited-government successes, such as the passage of Act 10.

Kennedy claimed the audit “puts to rest any questions as to whether the six Board members exercise independent judgment when they make decisions about complaints, investigations and penalties.”

Previous court records raised questions about the board members’ nonpartisan judgment. Conservative targets of the illegal investigation say the emails from one of the GAB’s top attorneys should raise serious alarm bells about the motives of the agency.

M.D. Kittle is bureau chief of Wisconsin Watchdog and First Amendment Reporter for Watchdog.org. Kittle is a 25-year veteran of print, broadcast and online media. He is the recipient of several awards for journalism excellence from The Associated Press, Inland Press, the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, and others. Kittle's extensive series on Wisconsin's unconstitutional John Doe investigations was the basis of a 2014 documentary on Glenn Beck's TheBlaze. His work has been featured in Town Hall, Fox News, NewsMax, and other national publications, and his reporting has been cited by news outlets nationwide. Kittle is a fill-in talk show host on the Jay Weber Show and the Vicki McKenna Show in Milwaukee and Madison. Contact Kittle at [email protected]